Blink-182 Producer Says Replacing Tom DeLonge Is Like The Beatles Replacing John Lennon

March 18, 2016

Blink-182‘s new producer John Feldmann has said that replacing Tom DeLonge was akin to The Beatles replacing John Lennon or Paul McCartney.

“I was thinking about what the closest parallel might be in musical terms, and I guess it would be like replacing Paul McCartney or John Lennon in The Beatles,” he said.

After an awkward split, Blink-182 sans DeLonge have now wrapped up their first album with Alkaline Trio‘s Matt Skiba.

According to drummer Travis Barker in a 2015 NME interview, things with Matt have been going well. “Matt’s killing it,” he said. “He’s fun to play with and write with. We’re just getting started but I think we’ve got, like, four or five songs right now that I’m really, really happy with.”

Producer John Feldmann continued in an interview with Kerrang!, “Tom and Mark really were a pair of lead singers, but Mark sings a lot of people’s favourite songs.”

“The guys aren’t 23 anymore,” he said. “They’re dads now, so they’re no longer writing songs about poo and that kind of stuff. But there’s still got to be a sense of humour to it; it’s got to be fun and funny, but also age appropriate. There’s got to be growth on the album, and there is.”

Feldmann himself is the lead singer and guitarist of punk/ska band Goldfinger, and has also worked as a successful producer, putting out work with music for Panic! At The Disco, The Used and Atreyu, among others. All of which makes his next statement pretty promising:

“[The album] sounds fucking great and I’m just so excited to have people hear it. I’d say it’s one of the best records I’ve ever made in my life.”

See some stuff the band has shared about the new album below.